RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Paraguay’s Constitution declared the country a bilingual nation in 1992, as the majority of its inhabitants speak the 2 official languages, Spanish and Guarani. However, there are 19 other indigenous languages spoken by the 19 native peoples.
The peoples are grouped into 5 linguistic families, Guaraní (Aché, Avá Guaraní, Mbya Guaraní, Paĩ Tavyterã, Guaraní Ñandéva, Guaraní Occidental), Maskoy (Toba Maskoy, Enlhet Norte, Enxet Sur, Sanapaná, Angaité, Guaná), Mataguayo Mataco (Nivaclé, Maká, Manjui), the Zamuco (Ayoreo, Ybytoso, Tomárãho) and Guaicurú (Qom).
According to data from Paraguay’s Secretariat of Linguistic Policies, “49.3% of the indigenous population aged 5 years and older use their respective indigenous languages as their first; a slightly lower percentage (48.9%) speak Paraguayan Guaraní. The remainder communicates with a language other than those mentioned.”
The 2020 Cervantes Institute’s “a living language” report says that within the estimated population, some 7,252,672 inhabitants, 68.2% of natives speak Spanish. The remainder speak Spanish as a second language.
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